The Ghostly Call Number...

Sometimes when call numbers become faded, or when the book has been checked out many times, the call number label on the spine starts to fade or rub off.  It took about 6 weeks to figure this out for this poor book, but we found it and gave it a new label.

The book was Tar Heel Ghosts by John Harden with the assigned call number of GR110.N8 H3.  This poor book was located in the QR section because the label had begun to rub off.

This is just another example of thinking how a letter or number can appear like another and checking in that location.  Sadly it took our team 6 weeks to find it, but it happens sometimes.  Luckily, the patron was pleased we located and promptly came by to check it out.

Drop, Switch, and Find!

Some books I found recently have had their digits switched or shelved as if half of the number was dropped:

• ·         N5630 .R49 1974 shelved as N6530 .R49 1974
• ·         HV4945 .K53 1926 shelved as HV49 .K53 1926

A common rule of thumb when it comes to searching is to be aware that these things happen, so be prepared for it and think about how the numbers can be dropped and switched!

Good luck and happy searching! 

Looking for Titles instead of Call Numbers can be Helpful

Occasionally, when a book goes through processing, something happens where the call number might be altered ever so slightly which can cause a book to go missing.

Such is the case for the book Investment Banking: Institutions, Politics, and Law by Morrison and Wilhelm.  The call number label said HV4534 .M65 2007; however, in our catalog it said (and of course should have been) HG4534 .M65 2007.  This can also happen to any other part of the call number too.

These sorts of things happen rarely, but when they do it can be particularly difficult to search, which is why searching for the title on the spine if it is printed there can be extremely helpful.  Sometimes a book can be thin and the title is still printed on the spine so it can be helpful to spot when looking for the titles.  Luckily in the example listed, I found it by searching as I always do in each of the letters on the floor and that is always important (Searching 101 remember?)

Good luck and happy searching!

Over sized/Over folio as their own Collection

Recently whenever I receive a search for an over sized/over folio book or even while I'm searching the stacks for something completely different, I stumble upon in the over sized collection an over sized book that doesn't even belong on that floor.

It's always hard already because no one seems to know what the FF or F means in front of the call number or the difference between the two.  When I first began as the search coordinator, all I ever usually had to worry about in regard to the over sized/over folio collection was that they usually were miss-shelved in both sections (F meaning the books are so large or sometimes rare they need to lay on their sides and FF meaning the book is a bit bigger than the regular books and require larger shelving), or they sometimes ended up in with the regular books.  This miss-shelving of the FF's usually occur with the art and photography books because they have the most.

However, now it seems as if they are treated as their own collection spread among different floors.  I have found ff PQ's with the ff PR's and I even found an ff Z mixed with the ff C's.  Therefore, if you are ever searching for an over sized/over folio book, make sure you are looking at every book that is in the over sized and over folio on that floor, where it would be shelved with the "regular" sized books, and possibly with the over sized books on other floors too.

Happy Searching!

The Unlikeliest Obvious Place a Book can Hide

Common locations where books like to hide where they should be in the Stacks are in the Reference and Reserves collections.  Therefore, it is always a good idea to search for books in these locations as well as the BBT location house on the 2^nd floor of the Main/Older side of the building, the Jewish Studies room on the 9^th floor.  It is also important to search the Holds shelves (especially if it could be a 3 day hold), the shelf where books headed to Preservation Services are, and the shelf designated for books needing to go to Cataloging.  Finally, make sure you look on the billing shelf and in Jackie’s office as well because she keeps books patrons have damaged so they can come and review them with her if desired.

Books that are encyclopedias, dictionaries, or other reference guides can end up in Reference especially when the used to be a part of that collection and then weeded to the stacks.  Instead of printing a new label, we usually black out the Ref at the top of the call number and that can fade over time causing it to be confused.  However, books that have never been part of the Reference collection can still end up there too.  A recent search I found in Reference was Modern Portuguese: A Reference Grammar by Mario Perini PC544 .P47 2002 (this book has never been in the Reference collection). 

Books that end up in Reserves usually are textbook type or oddly business related books.  One I found recently in Reserves was Business and Professional Communication in the Global Workplace by H. Lloyd Goodall HF5718 G66 2010.  However, it is important to note most of the time books found on this shelf are still checked out to the returning patron.

Therefore, it is always important to check these locations for each search because you never know where that book will be found!

Happy Searching!

Books in Odd Places

Occasionally books turn up in the strangest places such as underneath the bookshelf bolted to the floor; stacked neatly in both stairwells, the bathroom, and inside chair/couch cushions and even desk drawers! 

While we don’t usually search regularly in these locations, if you are desperate enough to look in all of the areas of the library, then it might be worthwhile to look in that random chair cushion on the 6^th floor.

Happy Searching!

Find that DVD!

In the past semester or so, there have been several search requests for DVDs.  Since DVDs can be stashed literally everywhere and since we only have an hour or so to look for things, below is a strategy I use to search for DVDs.  In the catalog they are displayed as DV COM 6049 or DV COM 11361J.  However, on the shelf the genre sticker is above the DV.  Also, the J is to differentiate between the Entertainment DVD and the Instructional.  Some Instructionals have become Entertainment and had already shared a similar number, so we just added a J to the end.  Those that have a J come after the ones without it (example: DV COM 6049 would come before DV COM 6049J, but may or may not be the same film).  TV series all have the same call number, but will have a colon followed by the season and disc numbers (i.e. All of the seasons of The Big Bang Theory has a call number of DV TV 12928J:3/2).  Therefore, TV series can be particularly tricky to search.

First, I think it would be useful to give a theory as to why many DVDs disappear from their shelving location.  The most obvious reason is of course that it could be on a staff member’s desk awaiting to be checked out on his/her break, or by a student who found a DVD and has either stashed it in his/her locker or maybe holding on to it while studying, looking for other books, etc. before checking it out and leaving the library.  The other more depressing motive is that unfortunately the movie has been stolen from the collection.   We must search for them to the best of our ability for 6 weeks since we don’t know when or if these movies will ever make it back or to the Checkout Desk and is required before the liaison will consider a reorder request.

However, there is a mere glimmer of hope that it could be miss-shelved on the shelf and here is how you should search for them.  Sadly, you must basically shelf-read the genre to which they belong because some patron browsing will either confuse the numbers or put it back on the shelf at random totally missing the empty re-shelving shelf.  I would also look behind the shelf and the makeshift holder to see if it slipped behind.  Since students shelf-reading the DVDs ought to be looking behind them anyway, I would just do the section where it is supposed to be to save some time.

If you don’t see it in the genre to where it belongs, then you must branch out to the other genres.  Of course look to where it would be normally shelved within the other genres because someone might disagree with the genre it was cataloged in and are trying to be passive-aggressive about it.  However, you have an advantage here with looking in the other genres by our DVDs are coded with brightly colored labels with their abbreviations on them and therefore it is an easy task to look through these other sections.

Also, it would be a good idea to search the DVD Reserves shelves (because Entertainment DVDs can be on Reserves) and the Instructional return basket behind the Checkout Desk because sometimes folks get confused about their proper shelving location especially if a professor has placed a booking on the DVD.  Look in the damaged DVD basket and billing areas.  In addition look in the Instructional shelving location in Cathy Rothermel’s office because it could be hiding there on the shelf too even though this is rare. 

As for searching an Instructional DVD, shelf-read that whole collection since sometimes they don’t make it back in their proper place or the case is really skinny since they are boxed differently than our Entertainment DVDs.  Also, if you search for an Instructional DVD, make sure you look in the Entertainment collection as well.

This concludes the search tutorial for DVDs.  Good luck hunting for that missing DVD!

The Misreading of Call Numbers

Sorry for the not so appealing title for this post, but today while searching, I found my search on the shelf with some others where the cutter of the call number was read wrong.  The search had the call number PN1040 .A513 1997 and was shelved just after the PN1040 .A53 's.  It then clicked in my brain that a lot of patrons get confused on how to read the numbers of a call number.   Patrons’ confusion over reading call numbers is important because that is how we discover where they are miss-shelved.

Take for example the above call number, PN1040 .A513 1997 should be read where .A513 should be viewed as if you were reading a decimal.  In decimal reading, .513 is smaller than .53 and not larger.  Sometimes patrons don’t read it this way and see the .513 as 513 (five hundred thirteen), which is more than 53 (fifty-three) if you exclude the decimal point.  In addition, sometimes patrons think in the opposite direction when it comes to decimals as well where they stick a .513 before a .5.  Just because a decimal may have more numbers, does not mean it should go before a decimal with less numbers. 

Also sometimes, though rarer than the decimals, patrons read that PN1040 as being next to a PN104.  1040 is not one hundred forty, but one thousand forty as we would really read a 4 digit whole number this way without a decimal.  To continue on with numbers with decimals after the letters corresponding to the subject, 1040.56 is obviously more than 1040.5 (add a zero to the 5 and it becomes .50 which is less than .56 since zero is smaller than 6), but patrons also forget about that as well.

Therefore, we can use how patrons understand decimals and the other numbers in the LC call number system to our aid when searching for books by thinking the way they are misreading the numbers.

Hopefully in this explanation I have not confused you all and my attempt has not been in vain.

Happy Searching! J

Books Hiding Other Books

A good tip and a cardinal rule really is to always remember is to look behind the shelf of books of which you are searching even if that shelf is not where the book ought to be but could be. 

Well for a couple of weeks, I have been breaking this rule and ignoring my own tip when one of my student assistants found one of our missings hiding behind some other books on a shelf several shelves below where it ought to have been.  It didn’t look like it had fallen between the shelves (our shelves are metal with a nice sized gap formed with the sections from the next row.  Instead, after the book had already been miss-shelved, another shelver (whether it was patron or employee is unclear) had crammed several books in front of our poor missing book to the back and thus concealing it from view.

In case anyone was wondering what missing book it was, Practical Research Planning and Design Q180.55.M4 L43 2013, a nasty section on its own because of the decimal (there happens to be several books bearing 180.5) and because there are several “M” cutters that tend to confuse the eye.

So an important lesson and Cardinal Rule #1: Always check behind the books on the shelf of which you are learning.

Happy Searching! J

The Miss-shelving Book Hider

Recently, while searching, I have encountered on several occasions books from 2 or 3 rows over crammed at the end of a shelf of books.  Also, on a shelf where the book end was slipping and some of the books leaning over, someone decided to cram a book (again 2 rows off where it should have been) in the little gap between the remaining upright books and the leaning ones. 

I’m unsure of who is doing this other than it is good practice for everyone who searches for missing items to occasionally look at the end of every shelf on every row as well as browse the books you pass by as you walk down the row.  Recently, I have found several miss-shelved items this way and on the rare occasion one that I had been looking for several months.  The most recent subjects this seems to be a reoccurring theme are all the G-GV’s, N’s, PN’s, PR , and PS.

Keep your eyes peeled and look out for books on the end of the shelves as well as the random miss-shelved ones in the middle of the shelf.

Happy Searching! J

The "ff" at the beginning…

This weekend as I was searching for another book on the 9^th floor, I searched in the oversized collection (anything above 28 inches in dimension for our library) for that floor's call number range.  I found something rather odd, a ffN shelved at the very end for the collection, which is A, B, and C’s.

So I got to thinking about why there was an oversized N on the 9^th floor with the A,B,C’s and the only think I could think of was someone got confused by the ff at the beginning of the call number, or maybe they thought that all ff’s were shelved together.

Certainly a first for me!  Usually when ff’s go missing they are usually shelved as if they were a regular sized book (imagine all of the creative placements for attempting to put an oversized book on a teeny, tiny shelf!), or since people get confused with E’s and F’s too, they find themselves with the F’s as well as in the F’s ffs (say that 10 times fast!).

If you receive a request for an ff, not only should you look in the f’s (over-folio, the big, BIG stuff over 40 inches for our library) as well as the regular sized book as if the patron disregarded the ff, but also on every other floor in their ff section.  This may sound tedious, but you never know where ff books might pop up...or miss-shelved rather.

Happy Searching!

Thesis/Dissertation Search Tutorial

Frequently, I receive search requests from Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to look for theses/dissertations and usually they are really out of place.

Here is a guide on how to search for theses/dissertations:

In our library, they are cataloged under the AS call number range, more specifically as AS36 .N64 if it is a dissertation, AS36 .N65 if it is a thesis.  Underneath this call number, there will be the academic department in an abbreviated form (i.e. Hist for History, Educ. for Education, and so on), and then there will be a year (i.e. 12 for 2012) and then a dash and another number denoting the number order it issued especially if there are multiple theses/dissertations awarded for a particular year.  The completed call number might look like this: AS36 .N64 Music 06-05 (only vertically of course and on the spine of the book).  On the top of the spine, there should be the student’s last name, although this may vary on binding practices over the years as well as if they had to obtain another copy because it went missing or was lost/stolen.

Seems fairly easy to shelve right?  Well, wrong on you for thinking that because there is a multitude of ways that it could be miss-shelved.  See below for a list of common miss-shelving mistakes rating for the most-likely to the rarer:

      1.   Theses are shelved with the dissertations and vice versa.  As if the color isn’t a key indicator (theses are usually green and dissertations black), I guess the 5 can become a 4 in some folks’ minds.

      2.  Sometimes they are shelved at the beginning of the dissertations because folks are just confused on how to shelve them or patrons are trying to help out by reshelving them.

      3.  If it is an oversized one (they are all shelved together not in the ff’s), they will most likely be miss-shelved lying flat on the shelf.

      4.  The years and order number at the bottom of the call number confuses everyone. Today I found one that was at the beginning of the Music range rather than toward the end where it ought to have been.  Call number: AS36 .N64 Music 06-05 and a bunch of others were crammed at the beginning, which happens to be in the 1970s if I remember correctly.

      5.  Education theses/dissertations frequently find themselves shelved with the English and vice versa.  Why? Well…I have no idea, same with the P.E. and the Psychology and the Political Science ones; along with the HHP, Hist. and the H.Ec’s.  Maybe the same beginning letter messes with folks’ heads.

      6.   Of course they might be randomly shelved within the theses/dissertations (usually numerically correct with the year published), so if all else fails, shelf-read, or at least look for your missing thesis/dissertation by the last name.

Thus, ends the tutorial of searching for theses/dissertations.  I hope this helps in looking for them and I haven’t left anyone completely confused and lost.

Happy Hunting!

The Next Shelf Over

Frequently books are found on a shelf above, below, to the left, or the right of where it ought to be.  These books sometimes are shelved right by the cutter, but wrong by the number and the call number initial letter.

Such is the case for the books listed below:

PN2286 .B67 1986 shelved as PN2287 .B67 1986 right next to a PN2287 .B6

GT4965 .G35 2002 shelved as GT4935 .G35 2002 right next to a GT4935 .G53 (oddly enough).

Happy Searching!

The Marriage of Call Numbers

Well, maybe not exactly, but close enough.  What do I mean by the marriage of call numbers?  I mean the sheer fact that for some reason some call numbers end up with other call numbers about 95% of the time if they are miss-shelved.

A perfect example of two such call numbers, are ones that begin with PN/PQ.  For some reason one is always in the other.  Another is PR/PS…must be something with the P’s!! 

Case in point, it is always important to check the other letters on the floor as if they are supposed to be shelved in that letter section.

Example for today’s post: PQ2605.A3734 E813 1989 shelved as PN2605.A3734 E813 1989.

Hide and Seek

Every now and then books like to hide behind the shelves or sometimes in between them.  However, on rare occasion, they like to play hide and seek with you and what I mean by that is that they like to hide in other books.

Example: Book LB2331 .G7940 1997, a mere 97 page book, was found within 392 page LB2331 .G78 1999.

While this is rare and curious as to how books really end up in situations like these can be theorized by that someone shelved a larger book and being lazy about it didn’t allot for enough room to put it back properly when spacing out the books.   Of course there is always the possibility that this was intentionally done by a patron, but who knows? 

FYI the above examples were paper/soft bound and can happen anywhere (Plays especially come to mind here).

Plays and Cutter Mishaps to Say the Least

Searching for plays is a love/hate relationship (well more of a hate relationship, but I love it when they are finally found within the 6 week search window). Unless they are bound together in a collected plays collection, many of them are very small and less than 100 pages. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones printed by Samuel French in softbound paper covers, and easily bent, torn apart, and damaged. Needless to say, they give my search assistants and me a HUGE headache looking for them.

Today, one of my assistants found one that I had been looking for almost 6 weeks now!! Recent Tragic Events by Craig Wright with the call number PS3573 .R53240 R43 2004 was hanging out with the PS3573.I(insert rest of call number here). Apparently Rs look like Is now and I'm pretty sure everyone is wondering, "Why did you miss this?!" Well friends, it's because plays are illusive, probably because someone looked at it and then moved it, or I was probably driving myself crazy trying to find it in the first place and simply overlooked it (hey, we are all human right?) In this particular section there are several playwrights/authors with the last name of Wright to add to the madness.

So here are some tips I like to use while looking for plays (besides the obvious statement of they could be anywhere):

1. Look along the shelf, section, and sections next to the proper shelving location. It's always a good idea to look behind the books on the shelf too because they could have fallen back behind them (This is particularly true in the PS3600's). Plus, looking along the whole aisle/row wouldn't be a bad idea.

2. Mix up your numbers and cutters (the bits after the decimal). Examples of this are a PS3573 could be a PS3537 or PS3573.R53240 R43 2004 could be PS3573.R43 R53240 2004 (or in the case of this unfortunate play, the R was reinvented into an I.

3. Think dyslexically. Like this play, the R turned into an I. The same can be said of any other part of the call number. PS could be PR (happens all the time), PS3573 could be PS3273, PS3373, etc.

4. Look in places where you know there are going to be a lot of plays. Examples of famous playwrights are Tennessee Williams, Lanford Wilson, August Wilson, Don Nigro to name a few (our library has several if not most of all of these works). Alternatively, you can look to find a group of plays and look at those to see if any are where they shouldn't be (though I tend to do this as a last resort).

5. For our library the key play shelving mishaps are between the call numbers beginning with PS3525-PS3620 (or beyond, I can't remember when it ends though the PS 3600+ are a pain). Therefore, I look at every cutter part that begins with R in the case of Mr. Wright's missing play. (examples: Though Recent Tragic Events begins with a PS3573, I look at all of the other PS's at their R's- PS3539.R53240, PS3559.R53240, etc.).

6. Sometimes patrons are lazy and instead of putting books and plays they are finished looking at on the 'to-be-shelved' cart, they sometimes reshelve their materials at the end of a shelf...no where near where the proper shelving location is. I use this as a last-ditch attempt too if all else fails, but I always keep on the lookout for these items while I'm searching anyway.

7. Even though they take a while to search, keep your cool and don't get frustrated. If the patron needs the play that badly, there is always interlibrary loan.

Anyway, this post has become long-winded enough, so I hope this helps all who are trying to find the missing, illusive, and pesky little plays. If I think of anything else, I'll add it to the comments section.